The Beveridge Report was designed to deal with extreme social and economic conditions. Beveridge called it ‘a time for revolutions, not for patching’.1 Seven decades later, we face an entirely new set of problems. We might call them the ‘five giants’ of the post-Beveridge era. Not the ravages of war or even the combined scourge of ‘want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness’ (which were Beveridge’s ‘giants’), but dramatically widening inequalities, catastrophic threats to the natural environment, a dysfunctional economy, a moribund democracy and a dangerous erosion of social solidarity. Unlike Beveridge’s ‘giants’, which put the spotlight on problems experienced by individuals, today’s ‘giants’ focus on problems that are shared. They afflict everyone, across generations and social groups. The poorest and weakest usually suffer first and most, but one way or another the...